Peter Weibel on Art, Media, and Technology at ZKM's new.New Festival

The new.New Festival, organized by Code_n and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from October 2016. Directed by Ulrich Dietz, the three-day event focused on digital avant-garde and attracted 5,000 visitors. In an interview, ZKM director Peter Weibel discussed his trajectory from performance artist to institutional leader, emphasizing the need to disrupt the impasse of digital industry giants through art-tech hybrids. He traced his interest in language tools back to the 1960s, influenced by the Vienna Circle and Wittgenstein, and noted his 1984 book on computer aesthetics and the 1989 exhibition 'Net Condition.' Weibel critiqued personalization as a false promise of freedom, citing Foucault, and highlighted ZKM's exhibitions 'Global Control Censorship' (1999) and 'Global Activism' (2013). The festival featured the installation 'SoL: Symmetries of Lights' by Freddy Paul Grunert and Fabrizio Tamburini, which visualizes the 84 symmetries of light using a panorama screen. Grunert described SoL as a first act toward expanding senses in performance, linking technology, science, art, and economy.